Chapter 9 Anomalous Hideout Little Pearl: How to Shoot, You Have to Aim...
The corridors inside the blood-soaked ship were spacious, and the silk wallpaper on the walls was stained brownish-black with blood.
Although the team's flashlights were bright, they still seemed dim compared to the open space, like candles that could go out at any moment.
The smell of rust in the air made the team hold their breath.
"This place is even more outrageous than I imagined," Tang Lan muttered under his breath, frowning. He chewed on a lychee-flavored soft candy and handed one to Sang Li, saying, "It'll help relieve your anxiety."
Sang Li said softly, "It's alright, much better than I expected."
"You're quite brave. Don't you find this blood disturbing to look at?" Tang Lan asked curiously.
"Blood?" Sang Li repeated, "Where is the blood?"
She didn't see blood on either side of the corridor, but rather beautifully decorated oil paintings and a bright red carpet, as if she were heading to a grand banquet, with rose petals even under her feet.
"Sang Li," Lu Jin called her name.
"Oh, what's wrong?"
Lu Jin wrapped his hand around her neck and pinched her earlobe hard.
Sang Li shuddered and suddenly blinked.
Where can I still find oil paintings?
A stench assaulted the senses, and the dark corridor resembled an abyss.
"What's going on!" Sang Li exclaimed in surprise.
“Hallucination,” Lu Jin said. “You should have entered a hallucination the moment you noticed the pearl. BEAM-915 emits low-frequency sound waves that have a strong psychological effect on humans, causing hallucinations.”
In other words, their target has arrived.
Moreover, BEAM-915 did not want Sang Li to see such a bloody scene.
ridiculous.
Lu Jin snorted coldly.
Continuing down the corridor, the sound of footsteps echoed abruptly and jarringly in the empty cabin.
Pushing open a heavy door, a hall decorated like a casino suddenly appeared before them. The long table in the center was covered with chips and playing cards covered with sticky red snot, and there were even a few unfinished glasses of wine with faint lipstick marks on the rims.
However, there was no one there, not even a corpse.
The snot-like object on the table seemed to sense the light and began to move toward the five people.
Bang!
Bang bang bang!
Yu Qi remained unfazed, and was shattered by several shots.
Zhou Fangyang explained over the walkie-talkie: "Another form of marine abomasum, an incompletely developed body, which is generally red or yellow."
Yu Qi looked around and said, "It's safe now."
Lu Jin, carrying a gun, pushed open another door.
It's bigger...like an auction hall.
Rows of circular seats extended downwards, facing a low stage. A spotlight on the stage shone on a chain. An empty lock hung from the end of the chain, as if it had once imprisoned something.
Zhou Yangyang's laptop made a soft sound, and after a moment, it said, "Found it, the ship's registration number is fake."
"Fake?" Sang Li asked in surprise.
“That’s right.” A bunch of garbled information appeared on Zhou Yangyang’s computer screen. “The registration number doesn’t match any country’s ship registration system at all, which means this is an illegal vessel.”
Lu Jin pondered for a moment, his gaze sweeping over the luxurious chairs and the chains on the stage, and said in a low voice, "An illegal vessel, yet decorated so lavishly. It's not for transporting goods; it's probably for some people's enjoyment."
Sang Li snorted: "Rich people."
Is it easy to work in a nightclub and a brothel?
Humans are disgusting.
There is a manual on the table.
Turn it over.
The content resembles a product catalog or a personal profile. Each page lists detailed information: name, gender, age, health status, a small photo in the corner, and the auction number.
Sang Li felt nauseous and exclaimed, "They're selling people!"
Tang Lan reached out and took the manual, casually flipping through a few pages, her expression gradually darkening.
Sang Li frowned and pointed to the text on the advertisement: "It says 'highest bidder wins'? This ship is involved in human trafficking, isn't that illegal? They deserve to die, why should we care?"
The entire ship was involved in human trafficking, and even organ transplantation.
No wonder this kind of ship was hidden so well.
Sang Li had heard many news reports about human trafficking. Ordinary people were kidnapped and used as the main "material" for illegal activities, ultimately ending up in land reclamation projects. If they were healthy, they would be used as donors for organ transplants.
Of course, children are not immune either; it is said that the adrenaline secreted by children can make people younger.
Of course, trafficking is even more serious for aberrant individuals, especially human-shaped aberrant individuals like her, who are studied as rare genetic material. Therefore, BEAM's capture of her is also a protective mechanism for themselves.
“He deserves to die,” Sang Li said.
Lu Jin glanced at her and patted her shoulder reassuringly.
Suddenly, Tang Lan, who had been staring intently at the machine screen, said, "Found it, the body."
The robot has already scanned the map inside the ship and sent it to the pupil display screen of each person.
Based on the location shown on the map, the five people immediately headed in the direction displayed on the screen.
Sang Li followed Lu Jin, holding a miniature weapon for self-defense.
However, when the flashlight beam fell on the door frame, it was discovered that it was covered with a layer of shimmering silver substance, like broken fish scales, a cool and enchanting silver that was quite beautiful.
"Don't touch it," Lu Jin warned in a low voice, his eyes wary. "There's something wrong with this thing."
Yu Qi examined it for a moment and shook his head. "It doesn't look like metal; it looks more like something that fell off by some kind of organism."
Without lingering, she gripped her weapon tightly and led the way to an iron gate at the end of the road.
Finding the body might lead to many answers.
A red medical sign was printed on the iron gate, making it look like an operating room.
Yu Qi kicked the door open, and a foul stench immediately hit her, so pungent that it was almost impossible to breathe.
Sang Li instinctively took a step back and covered her nose.
Piles of rotting corpses were haphazardly stacked in a corner, their bodies twisted, faces contorted, their deaths extremely gruesome. The corpses were covered with layers of white saline, like snowflakes falling on them.
There were victims who had been dissected, and there were wealthy people dressed in evening gowns.
Tang Lan walked to the center of the room and checked the surveillance equipment on the floor. Suddenly, her expression changed drastically. "Something's wrong!"
Everyone immediately turned to look at him.
"The alarm has been triggered." Tang Lan quickly operated the equipment in his hand and said coldly, "There are no fewer than 36 Class B anomalies that are rapidly approaching us."
Sang Li was startled.
Why are there so many all of them all of a sudden?
36?
So you mean one against nine? No, she's not even a person.
So that means one against twelve?
Wow, I'm really good at math.
Lu Jin spoke calmly, his fingers tracing the communicator, and commanded in a deep voice: "Adjust formation and prepare to retreat."
"Where to?" Yu Qi asked, her gaze already scanning the corridor outside the room with suspicion.
“The auction hall,” Lu Jin replied. “It’s spacious and has a good view, which makes it easier to deal with these anomalies.”
The group acted quickly and evacuated the operating room as instructed by Lu Jin.
However, just five meters away, a scream suddenly rang out from inside the cabin!
It's the sound of an abnormal being.
"Wow, here it comes so fast!" Tang Lan swallowed nervously.
Sang Li: !
She had never seen anything so unusual...an anomaly!
Are these my own kind?
It seems BEAM is protecting her by not showing her the files of other anomalous individuals!
This octopus-like head resembles a human, but it lacks facial features, possessing only a bottomless mouth that continuously drips foul-smelling liquid, blocking the end of the corridor.
Yu Qi reacted quickly, raising the muzzle of his gun and aiming it precisely at the monster's head.
Bang!
Bang! Bang!
Several gunshots rang out, and Squidward's head was instantly shattered, barnacle fragments scattered everywhere, and his tentacles trembled a few times before collapsing to the ground, quickly dissolving into a pool of disgusting slime.
Tang Lan pointed the way: "Go to the right, you can't go to the left. Holy crap, there are so many of them, the road is going to be blocked. BEAM-321 detected ahead."
Zhou Fangyang, who had been closely monitoring the situation, said over the walkie-talkie: "There is an internal corridor at the 5 o'clock position. If you go there, the drones are spreading attractants around them, which will attract some BEAM-321s."
Sang Li hadn't yet recovered from the monster nicknamed "Octopus Brother" and was preoccupied with wondering what BEAM-321 was.
At this moment, Zhou Fangyang projected all the information about BEAM-321 into Sang Li's eyes through the pupil display. Covered in sharp teeth, it primarily inhabits the deep sea and the interiors of decaying coastal vessels. BEAM-321's main attack method is to entangle and strangle its prey until it suffocates.
Sang Li frowned; she was so difficult to deal with.
From this perspective, it's not an exaggeration to say that the shelter provided her with a two-bedroom apartment; she must be the most harmless S-class anomaly!
"Run!"
"Retreat this way!"
"Watch out, they're coming!"
Before Sang Li could finish reading, a twisted vine suddenly pounced on her!
Tang Lan cursed under his breath and raised his hand to fire, but the bullets hit the vines as if they were hitting a sponge, and could not cause any real damage.
The tentacles danced wildly at incredible speed, almost wrapping around Tang Lan's ankles!
Even Lu Jin rarely saw such a large number of anomalies appear at the same time.
The silence turned into a boiling atmosphere.
He shielded Sang Li beside him: "Follow me."
Sang Li gripped the gun tightly.
Just then, several sea vines suddenly burst through the air, carrying the salty scent of seawater as they rushed towards them.
Lu Jin reacted incredibly fast, grabbing Sang Li with one hand to dodge. Almost the instant the tentacle attack landed, he and Sang Li had already created distance between them.
The next second, Lu Jin quickly raised his weapon, aimed at the slightly glowing node in the center of the twisted vine, and decisively pulled the trigger.
Bang!
With a gunshot, the wisteria instantly convulsed like a bursting blood balloon, before finally coming to a complete stop, turning into rotting, melted remains.
Sang Li stared wide-eyed, still shaken, the smell of gunpowder still lingering in her nostrils.
Lu Jin commanded: "On the right, Sang Li, you follow Tang Lan, I'll cover the rear."
Sang Li nodded and hurried to catch up.
The carpet was sticky, and there were also the corpses of abnormal beings on the ceiling from the fierce battle.
Something seemed to surge within the surrounding darkness.
Suddenly, Sang Li's foot slipped and she stepped on something sticky.
What is it?
It can't be...
Before she could react, the floor suddenly trembled, and a large, dark hole silently appeared beneath her feet.
Sang Li screamed in panic and plunged into the cave.
The change happened so fast that Tang Lan and Yu Qi reached out to grab it, but they couldn't even catch a single strand of Sang Li's hair.
"Sang Li!" Lu Jin's expression changed drastically. He almost instinctively wanted to jump down after him, but the moment he took a step, the hole quickly healed, as if it had never existed.
"Damn it!" He suddenly looked up at Tang Lan, "Where is she?"
Tang Lan quickly operated the device on her wrist, and the screen displayed a floor plan of the ship: "She is two floors below us, 78 seconds away. The stairs are around the corner, guarded by barnacles."
“Call them,” Lu Jin said.
Lu Jin pressed the button on his earpiece: "Sang Li, are you alright?"
Sizzle... sizzle...
Sizzle...
The signal was intermittent, as if it were enveloped by humid air.
"Sang Li, are you injured?"
"Sang Li, answer me."
Lu Jin's temples throbbed, his knuckles turned white, and his face looked terrible.
Three seconds later, Sang Li's slightly trembling voice came through the earpiece: "I...I fell down. I don't have a flashlight, there are no lights around, I should be in the cabin."
Lu Jin breathed a sigh of relief and immediately said, "Don't be afraid, stay where you are, we'll be there soon. Don't move around."
Sang Li froze for a moment, then quickly looked around and found a half-open guest room door behind her.
He pulled the door open, pushed himself in, and then slammed the door shut and locked it.
The guest rooms are large and have balconies, outside of which is the dark ocean under the moonlight.
The room returned to quiet.
Sang Li held her breath and checked the pistol; it was fully charged.
She took a deep breath and muttered to herself, "Sang Li, you're an adult now. You can protect yourself."
Although Lu Jin knew she wasn't speaking to him, his tone was gentle: "Yes, you can. Don't be afraid, I'll be there soon."
rustle……
rustle……
Something is getting closer.
Is it that fast?
Am I really that attractive?
Are all these abnormal beings starving?
I can't just tie myself up at home and breed a bunch of slugs!
Sang Li's eyes widened instantly, and she raised her gun, pointing it at the door.
Lu Jin's calm voice came through the earpiece again: "We have 50 seconds left, Sang Li, hang in there."
Sang Li stared intently at the doorway, her heart pounding.
The light inside the room flickered.
Huh?
What happened?
Is someone turning on the light?
wrong!
She suddenly noticed that the light in the room seemed to have dimmed.
Is the moonlight being blocked?
"Damn it!" Sang Li cursed under his breath, his finger gripping the trigger tightly.
"What's wrong?" Lu Jin asked, accompanied by the sounds of fierce artillery fire and Yu Qi's angry roar in the background.
The octopus-like creature suddenly raised one of its tentacles, its sharp, claw-like tip striking the glass window with a piercing "crackling" sound.
Sang Li took a deep breath: "I'm going to fight to the death. This thing has me surrounded. You can tell my mother, but I'm not a coward!"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the anomaly smashed the windowpane, scattering shards across the floor with a sharp sound.
The tentacles waved slowly, as if savoring the fear of their prey.
"Keep the firepower steady, fire at the head," Lu Jin's voice was even more steady, and you could hear the footsteps quickening. "30 seconds, we'll be there."
Sang Li gritted her teeth, raised the gun in her hand, aimed it at the anomaly, and pulled the trigger with difficulty.
However, just as she was about to fire, the anomaly suddenly uttered a muffled yet clear human voice: "Help me..."
His voice was hoarse and painful.
Is it human?
Sang Li was stunned. Her hesitation lasted for less than a second, but the aberrant's tentacles suddenly lashed out at her!
Just then, a pair of hands with distinct knuckles and fair skin suddenly reached out from behind her and firmly grasped the hand holding the gun.
My fingers were icy cold, like an ice current from the depths of the ocean.
His breath was light and shallow, close to her ear.
Sang Li's body froze instantly, as if she were being entangled in seaweed and suffocating.
who?
Who's behind this?!
"Don't let go," a deep voice said, like the ocean currents in the darkness, "Little Pearl, shoot like this, aim for its heart."
A note from the author:
Lu Jin: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Lu Jin: Who's talking?!
Lu Jin: If you're so capable, let's have a one-on-one fight!!!
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